DESCRIPTION (Taken from application) Funds are requested for a program which would fund six predoctoral and one postdoctoral (M.D.) trainees each year for a term of two to three years each. All trainees will receive a Ph.D. degree in Nutrition. The Department of Nutrition at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is uniquely positioned to advance the study and teaching of nutrition because, unlike any other Department of Nutrition in the United States, it has full professional status and support in both a School of Public Health and a School of Medicine. One of the unique ways this department contributes to the field of nutrition is by linking traditional training in the basic and clinical sciences with selected in-depth training in epidemiology, statistics, and the behavioral sciences. The Department's faculty members have broad research interests which address the several roles of nutrition in healthy development and in disease etiology and prevention. In addition, the diverse faculty resources available at the University provide additional depth of experience for prospective Nutrition trainees. In this training grant we offer a unique educational program which includes formal course work in the Department of Nutrition and research training in the laboratories of an outstanding group of scientists. These research interests and expertise provide an environment in which students can integrate 1) laboratory derived understanding of basic biological mechanisms, 2) knowledge, derived from epidemiological studies, of the relationship between diet and health or disease, and 3) theory-based strategies for changing the diets of individuals and populations in order to reduce disease and improve health. Current trainees are making excellent progress in their studies and several have graduated and obtained excellent academic positions. Graduates of this training program are trained to investigate 1) human nutritional biochemistry, 2) the epidemiologic aspects of nutrition, and 3) promotion of health and prevention of disease at the individual and community level.